29 to 30 times. That’s how many times Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the drum major for peace, was arrested for his civil rights activities.

29 to 30 times for courageously speaking truth to power.

29 to 30 times for merely fighting for equal rights for all human beings, and it earned him the right to be hated by a large swath of America’s racist population.

“It’s about time somebody killed that nigg#r,” quotes Jane Elliott of one of her fellow elementary school teachers upon Dr. King’s assassination. That, along with a question from one of her students regarding why Dr. King was killed, led to her lifelong commitment to educating people, classified as “white,” about the evils and strategies of racism/white supremacy via her brown eye/blue eye exercise.

It was only after Dr. King’s untimely death that the powers that be went to work on recreating a more palatable version of the great civil rights leader.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” has been used relentlessly while ignoring the bulk of King’s messages along with the broader context of his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

Forgotten is the exposure of America’s failure to make good on a check marked “Insufficient Funds” that was supposed to guarantee the right to access freedom and equality and the Great American Dream for ALL Americans, regardless of color.    

Forgotten is Dr. King’s challenge to capitalism. Forgotten is his stance against the Vietnam War. Forgotten is his war on poverty. Forgotten is his reexamination and fear of integrating his people into a “Burning House.” 

The palatable version of Dr. King was a feel-good King. The palatable Dr. King was a “why can’t we just all get along” King, by not causing any waves or bucking the system of institutionalized systemic racism/white supremacy. The palatable Dr. King was a law-abiding “good Negro” who rejected violence at every turn, insisting on turning the other cheek and showing no tolerance for riotous behavior. 

Yes, that’s the King America wanted and celebrated after the real Rev. Dr. King was struck down by an assassin’s bullet at 6:01 pm while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. And what was resurrected in his place was America’s dream of a Black leader who was willing to go along to get along. That was the iconic image they wanted and needed to turn the growing tide of discontent.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover saw Dr. King as a threat to American society and its white supremacist agenda. He tapped his phones, attempted to cause discourse and a breakdown in trust within the movement, and even within his marriage, and suggested that he kill himself to avoid any embarrassment. And many conspiracy theorists still question whether Hoover was behind King’s assassination.       

While often seen as two ends of the spectrum, Dr. King and Malcolm X may have been more alike than different. They sought many of the same core objectives for America, just with different approaches. And to those who felt threatened by their joint leadership, something had to be done to make their days on this earth with a short expiration date.

“We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary,” said Malcolm.

“A riot is the language of the unheard,” said Dr. King.

While preferring peaceful strategies, they both clearly understood the frustration that can lead to non-peaceful alternatives.

America always embraced and championed the “good Negro,” while demonizing the “troublemaking Negro” who challenged the system of inequality. The “good Negro” was rewarded while the “troublemaker” was attacked, threatened, and even killed.  

The 29 to 30 times arrested Dr. King did not fit the description of the “good Negro” in life, only in death, when he was reinvented. The message was clearly sent that the “good Negro” gets to live and get rewarded, while “troublemaking Negros” don’t often live long.

We saw that with the Nat Turners, the Black Panthers, Medgar Evers, the “Move” organization in Philly, and over 4,000 Black men, women, and children who were hanged from trees like Christmas ornaments. Not to mention those incarcerated and used as free labor for the rich, as pawns in the white supremacist prison industrial system.  

No, freedom fighters and revolutionaries represent racist America’s greatest nightmare, while the “good Negro” offers reassurance and comfort.

Keep the masses ignorant of its history and strategies of “white” male wealthy landowners. Keep pointing the finger at illusions of non-patriotic brown skinned immigrants, of Blacks who seek equality and question a system that has proven itself time and time again to be against them reaching the goal line. Keep pointing the finger at the LGBTQ+ community, the libs, the Dems. Keep pointing the finger at the CRT and DEI boogiemen. ANYBODY or ANYTHING will do as long as it’s not the “white” male wealthy landowners.

Don’t teach them about Bacon’s Rebellion. Don’t teach them about the real horrors of slavery. Don’t teach them about the difference between slavery in other parts of the world and in history, versus chattel slavery in America. Don’t teach them about the slaughter and genocide of the Native Americans. Don’t teach them about the medical experiments using Black bodies. Don’t teach them about the ungodly savagery and brutality of their “white” American heroes.

Don’t teach them about the origins of the social construct of “race.” Don’t teach them about the real heroes and sheroes of history who fought and died as examples of true courage and patriotism. Don’t teach them about the Daughters of the Confederacy and the successful instillation of revisionist history in our public schools. Don’t teach them about brown and Black people who fought and died, and loved a country that did not love them in return. Keep them ignorant, and we keep them under control.

Instead, teach them about a fabricated version of America and her “white” heroes that conquered the world, saving it from the uncivilized hedonistic behaviors of “the real savages.” Teach them a version that is on par with a belief in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  

Consequently, all too many embrace a childlike view of America, looking for their Christmas gifts and Easter eggs to be delivered by fictitious characters draped in an American flag, singing the National Anthem and God Bless America.    

Yes, this is America with the covers pulled back. We talk a good game with chants of USA! USA! We pledge our allegiance to a flag and sing about America the beautiful, but below the surface lies something ugly. It’s not Christian or Christlike but just the opposite. It’s the cult of white Christian nationalism that rationalizes and justifies any and everything that supports guns and violence for what is seen as the “greater” good, for bowing the knee and serving the idol god of the love of money, power, and the lust of the flesh, AKA the Unholy Trinity.

While America has done a lot of legitimate good in the world, it’s been done with people groups across the spectrum, and that part often goes unrecognized. We need a realistic balance.    

29 to 30 times America showed what it really thought of the real Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on April 4, 1968, a “troublemaker” was killed on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, and a “good Negro” was born to comfort America.

“It was about time that somebody killed THAT nigg#r.”

Happy Martin Luther King Day!